After a century of rigidity and repression, the clothing of the early Baroque, mirroring the new philosophical and artistic outlook, used relaxed fabrics that flowed and expanded outward from the body. Compare, for example, the qualities of dress in the Evening Ball for the Wedding of the Duc de joyeuse, dated about 1581, with those in the famous The Garden of Love by Rubens, dated about 1632. It is as if the ruffs had suddenly melted into soft lace collars and the boning, padding, and forcing of the body had relaxed into an easy expansion of the clothing away from the contours of the body. The tortured, excessively decorated fabric surfaces have been replaced by an interest in the natural character of the fabric itself. Like architecture, sculpture, and painting in the Baroque era, the costumes moved, expanded, and spread out into space to create a sense of size and grandeur. The men's hats, in particular, had bigger brims than ever before and were worn casually on one side of the head. Women's skirts blossomed out from the body without the inhibiting control of braid and jewelry, and the natural fabric surfaces shimmered and moved with a new sense of freedom.

          Rubens' The Garden of Love, an imaginative painting rather than an exact rendering of fashion, gives us the mood and feeling of the new style, but not the facts and details. However, a look at Abraham Bosse's print The Costume Ball gives an excellent example of the overall fashion silhouettes of this early Baroque dress as well as information on individual variations.

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Summary

          This was a period of loosening tension and a return to an admiration of the natural human form expanding outward through clothing into surrounding space. It was a period of theatricality, richness, and grandeur without the inhibitions and restraints applied during the Mannerist Renaissance. The ideal for women during the height of this period was a fullness and ripeness in form and clothing that underlined the ideal of expansion into space. For men the ideal was a swaggering, cavalier manner in clothes that were relatively full and loose, worn with a casual asymmetry in boot tops, hat angles, and cloak drapings.